Good morning and happy Thursday!
I had the opportunity to read FIND HER by Lisa Gardner (paperback release is June 13th, 2017) Yet another great thriller from Gardner!
My Thoughts: 4.5/5 stars!
I’ve read one other Lisa Gardner book, RIGHT BEHIND YOU, and I loved it! So I was excited to get started on this one. Even though it is book 8 in the D. D . Warren series, it read very well as a standalone. I do feel like I should read some of the others, to get to know D. D. Warren better! There are always some references that you won’t understand when you jump in so late in a series.
Seven years ago, Flora Dane was a college student kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora endured more than she ever thought she could. Flora is a victim turned survivor. She manages to live through her ordeal and has spent the last five years trying to reacquaint herself to normal life. Working closely with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes, has really been helping her progress along. Her life at home isn’t quite the same as it was before her kidnapping – her mother never stopped looking for her and will support her always, her brother is terrified of the person she has become, and she continues to cover the walls of her room in the photos of other girls – the ones that never made it back home.
Boston detective, D. D. Warren, is called to a crime scene – a dead man and the bound and naked woman that killed him. Learning that Flora is tangled up with three other suspects since her return to society, Warren is now concerned that she could be trying to be a vigilante of sorts. However, with her intimate knowledge of criminal behavior, Flora might be the key to finding an abducted college student. But when Flora is taken, Warren realizes that this person is determined to not let her escape this time, and it is up to her to find them.
As with the other Lisa Gardner book I read, the characters are well-developed and the police procedural is spot on. Flora, despite what she went through, is a strong female heroine. D. D. Warren is determined, flawed, and will stop at nothing to find the missing girls. The kidnapper made me uncomfortable – a truly sinister human being, but is an outwardly normal man that you could just run into on the street. I feel like some investment or attachment to D. D. is lost because it is the 8th installment in her series. It does read well as a standalone, but I feel like I wasn’t nearly as invested in her as others would be.
This story moved at a fast pace – where is the college girl, where is Flora Dane, will D.D. get there in time? What the kidnapper does is horrendous and you hope the girls can escape! I loved this book and I’ll definitely keep looking for more from Lisa Gardner.
I give this 4.5/5 stars – simply because I’m so far behind on D. D. Warren’s story (even though this reads as a standalone)
A big thanks to Dutton for the copy in exchange for my honest review!
–Jess
Jessicamap Reviews 